Regular readers will know that I often say/write on here that I like real ales and bitters. The highlight of my recent trips to Blighty have been sampling the beer.
I don't think Hops are native to Hibernia or Ireland and bitter making never took off like it did in Blighty.
J was in Lidl yesterday talking to a man stocking the beer shelves. She said that I like Newcastle Brown Ale and other English beers.
We find it very difficult to source such beers especially after Brexit. Yet the shelves are full of beers from all over Europe. You can even buy Super Bock which we have drank on our holidays in the Algarve.
The man recommended the beer in the above photo. It's called Rust Bucket and originates from a brewery that started on a farm in County Donegal.
The can of Rust Bucket cost 3 Euros or 2 Pounds eighty four:
A pint of Kinnegar Rust Bucket in a John Smith pint glass. Kinnegar is the name of a beach on the Wild Atlantic Way.
What did you think Dave?
Good question Dave! It tasted very hoppy like the Kent beers I have drank on my 3 visits to A New Day Rock Music Festival near Faversham. It's 5.1 strength.
It makes a change from Carlsberg. I wouldn't mind half a dozen of them this weekend when we get another down pour like last weekend.
Are there any craft breweries you recommend?
Does anyone make their own Homebrew? I knew a bloke who used to make it and sold it for ten bob a bottle. What an entrepeneur and service to the community.🍺
You reminbded me I need to pass on the (numerous) bottles of beer that we kept in for my husband David and his real ale mates!. At his funeral we put up a barrel of the Derby Brewing Company's " Business as Usual", which was his favourite drink. I understand that there are many local breweries around here, but that one or two are closing down too. Hope the good ones are hoping to keep going.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Gill
Meant to say in my last comment that I have several hop plants here. I grow a golden hop for it's looks and "Fuggle" which is an old english one. Even if the hops aren't used for traditional purposes, it is the host plant of the Comma butterfly , which is good, though haven't seen may this year.
ReplyDeleteDiageo and other big drink providers have bought up so many little and big breweries Gill. Even Guinness. Our smallholding guru/author John Seymour use to grow hops. I think might have a go at making some home brew again. I bought four more Rust Bucket for tonight. Very nice.
DeleteThere are a few craft breweries here which all have a very good reputation by all accounts.
ReplyDeletehttps://isleofmancamra.org/?page_id=239#:~:text=A%20one%20man%20Isle%20of%20Man
P likes the beers at his local which is very popular.
Stop it JayCee.😊 Any smallholdings for sale on the IOM? I have tried Killarney Brewery beer. Most local pubs sell Guinness, Carlsberg, Heineken, Smithwicks and Bulmers cider. I even seek out English pubs when I have an holiday inthe sun. Sounds like you and P live in a great place?
ReplyDeleteIt was Grand Met who merged with Guinness to form Diageo. I was still stockbroking at the time. Grand Met had already started taking over breweries before it merged with Guinness. It was originally a hotel company which moved into catering and then breweries. I don't mind a can of cold Carlsburg Export Lager, which is about the strongest lager available these days in the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Diageo heads up Rachel. I love Doombar made by Sharpe's brewery in Cornwall when I visit Blighty. They do some great ciders and sell my favourite Newcastle Brown Ale. Any local craft breweries near you in Norfolk?
ReplyDeleteYes, Norfolk has loads of micro-breweries. We are the home of malting barley. The nearest one to me is the Wolf Brewery.
DeleteYou sent be down a brewery rabbit hole there Rachel. It's even got it's own pub in Norwich. I wonder if Arthur Guinness bought his malted barley from Norfolk? Apparently he first brewed Guinness in London and named it Porter after the porters at Covent Market who drank a brown stout.
ReplyDeleteNorfolk malt goes all over the world. We, as hauliers, used to deliver Norfolk barley to the Elephant and Castle Guinness brewery in London. I would write out the road directions on a sheet of paper for my brother to get him round London!
DeleteYou should write a book about your farm and hauling business tales. Who needs Google Map with Rachel's written instructions? Not the taxi knowledge. The brewery knowledge!😊
ReplyDeleteI have never been able to understand Google maps and still continue to handwrite my own instructions on a piece of paper when going anywhere unfamiliar. My mother had a collection of folders, A to Z, of all the instructions she had written out for our drivers. Some breweries, millers and farms. Thanks Dave.
DeleteGoogle maps have sent us on some wild goose chases along boreens not much wider than a cattle tracking rural Ireland.
ReplyDeleteRyanair have decided to do away with paper boarding passes today. I always use a paper boarding pass in case my phone dies or I lose it. Why do they presume everyone is computer savvy and uses their phones? This must be very difficult for old people. I met one old lady at Luton airport who couldn't get through the automatic gate because she had only filled in one part of her boarding pass according one of the staff. Your mother and yourself knew how to communicate.